“Jonathan McGovern ist ein heldentenoral strahlender Oreste, der sich aber auch wunderbar zurücknehmen kann”
(ONLINE MERKER, JUNE 2023)
“Jonathan McGovern gibt den Robert, Herzog von Burgund, mit kernigem Bariton…’
(ONLINE MERKER, MARCH 2023)
“Don Giovanni’s famous aria, Deh Vieni Alla Finestra, was a real strong point of the character’s overall performance with its tender moments juxtaposing his brutal persona. Being the anti-hero of the opera, his bold, brazen nature was exhibited well throughout the performance by McGovern – and given the few accustomed boos to the villain come the closing bows, it was certainly job well done.”
(PRESS AND JOURNAL, JUNE 2022)
“Jonathan McGovern was a very civilised Adonis, and both singers brought out the sense of flexibility in the vocal line; the work is written in a sort of continuous arioso and here it was in very expressive hands.”
(PLANET HUGILL, APRIL 2022)
“Jonathan McGovern [is] a wonderfully confused Demetrius.”
(BACHTRACK, FEBRUARY 2022)
“Jonathan McGovern’s Demetrius, Charlie Drummond’s Helena, Lea Shaw’s Hermia and Elgan Llŷr Thomas’s Lysander – all singers to watch – found maximum character in the quartet of lovers.”
(THE GUARDIAN, FEBRUARY 2022)
“Not a moment too soon, McGovern dropped his laddishness and recovered some god-like dignity for his final aria of regret, which he sang with tender artistry. From the opening grandeur to this final quiet sublimity was quite a journey, and the most eloquent proof that in the right hands Handel’s clichés can become musical gold.”
(TELEGRAPH, JANUARY 2022)
“There’s beautiful playing from the ROH Orchestra under Christian Curnyn in the Handel…opposite McGovern’s funny yet dangerous Apollo, excellent in his grieving final aria.”
(THE GUARDIAN, OCTOBER 2020)
“Baritone Jonathan McGovern gives a beautifully judged performance, tracing the disintegration of Apollo from strutting macho-man to heartbroken lover, so overwhelmed in his last aria “Pianta cara” that he cannot complete the final cadence.”
(BACHTRACK, OCTOBER 2020)
“As Count Almaviva, Jonathan McGovern was suitably aristocratic of tone”
(OPERA MAGAZINE, MAY 2020)
“The sensuality and the libertine desire of Don Giovanni was carried by Jonathan McGovern, the movements of his body and his voice, strong and virile.”
(AGOSTINO TROTTA, OLYRIX, SEPTEMBER 2019)
“Jonathan McGovern’s Giovanni excelled when sheer dynamism and vocal brutality were required and his stage presence was compelling.”
(OPERA MAGAZINE. AUGUST 2019)
“Jonathan McGovern’s Don is highly mobile as well as vocally exciting, and always just one step ahead of the capable Leporello of David Ireland.”
(LARK RISE & MUSICAL OPINION, JUNE 2019)
“The central relationship between Giovanni — a cocksure, steel-eyed Jonathan McGovern — and his put-upon wingman Leporello was a bromance for the ages, never more believable or entertaining than in their boisterous joint recitatives.”
(RICHARD BRATBY, THE SPECTATOR, JUNE 2019)
“Don Giovanni is reinvented in Jonathan McGovern’s splendidly pugnacious, psychopathic portrayal.
(THE TIMES, JUNE 2019)
“Jonathan McGovern’s lithe acting and seductive baritone carry the evening in his arias and ensembles.”
(CLASSICAL SOURCE, JUNE 2019)
“Jonathan McGovern, a company regular and last year’s Papageno at this address, sang a forthright, mellifluously expressive Don, vocally the libertine of Mozart’s imaginings”
(BACHTRACK, JUNE 2019)
“McGovern sang [Don Giovanni] with strong tone, a flexible line and dramatic colour.”
(OPERA TODAY, JUNE 2019)
“Jonathan McGovern was excellent as Adonis…[and later] returned as a virile Aeneas”
(OPERA MAGAZINE, APRIL 2019)
“Jonathan McGovern is a youthful, naive, meek, sultry, supple sounding Pelléas.”
(KLEINEZEITUNG, FEBRUARY 2019)
“Jonathan McGovern brought an unforced, virile baritone to Andrey”
(OPERA MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER 2018)
“Jonathan McGovern as Andrei made an engaging romantic lead… measuring out yards of bronzed baritone with proud dignity.”
(SPECTATOR, NOVEMBER 2018)
“McGovern’s focused line in the subsequent slow, simple declamation that she was to divorce her husband and marry another man, masked tragic emotional disturbance, as intimated by the violin’s commentary; the abruptness of the close was brutal. In the final song, in which Schiller describes a deserted landscape, the baritone’s dark tone and robustness through the angular line, “Fair world, where are you?”, was compelling.”
(OPERA TODAY, NOVEMBER 2018)
“The beautifully dark-colored baritone of Jonathan McGovern (Adonis) beautifully matched Crowe.”
(OPERAMAGAZINE.NL)
“Jonathan McGovern musters a really Russianate thrust of baritone as the perpetually anguished Andrei”
(THE TIMES, SEPTEMBER 2018)
“Jonathan McGovern’s expressive baritone makes of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky a noble and sympathetic figure”
(THE GUARDIAN, SEPTEMBER 2018)
“The best music comes at the beginning; a thrillingly barbaric chorus of defiance, followed by a lovely lyrical nocturne for Andrei (beautifully sung here by Jonathan McGovern)”
(THE TELEGRAPH, SEPTEMBER 2018)
“Of the chief protagonists, Jonathan McGovern (Andrei), Lauren Michelle (Natasha) and Mark Le Brocq (Pierre) were all excellent… McGovern sang the young prince with beautiful softness, and his deathbed scene with Natasha, cleverly viewed from vertically above, was some of the most memorable theatre I have seen.”
(BACHTRACK, SEPTEMBER 2018)
“More effectively drawn is the role of Andrei, sung splendidly by Jonathan McGovern. His death bed scene was spine tingling”
(ART SCENE IN WALES, SEPTEMBER 2018)
“Jonathan McGovern sings Andrei with a yearning clarity that sends Rita McAllister’s functional new English translation ringing through the auditorium.”
(WHAT’S ON STAGE, SEPTEMBER 2018)
“Jonathan McGovern has one of the most beautiful baritone voices around today… Lovely burnished tone and exact diction were there in plenty”
(MUSICOMH, JUNE 2018)
“McGovern is one of the most purely lyrical Papagenos I’ve heard, layering tenderness on top of his grubby, put-upon characterisation.”
(THE SPECTATOR, JUNE 2018)
“Jonathan McGovern’s charismatic Papageno is a lovely character-study in peasant wit and wisdom”
(THE INDEPENDENT, JUNE 2018)
“Jonathan McGovern uses his rich, rounded baritone to inject beguiling character-colour into a Papageno deprived of his customary bumpkin appeal ”
(OPERA TODAY, JUNE 2018)
“the young baritone Jonathan McGovern proves to be quite brilliant.”
(ANACLASSE, JULY 2017)
“It is the central couple, however, that keeps this production anchored. Baritone Jonathan McGovern has oodles of youthful charm, along with the lithe, heroic voice one expects of Pelléas.”
(FINANCIAL TIMES, JUNE 2017)
“Jonathan McGovern made a personable Pelléas with the right tenorial edge to his baritone”
(THE TELEGRAPH, JUNE 2017)
“Jonathan McGovern is an agile and attractive Pelléas”
(THE TIMES, JUNE 2017)
“McGovern and Carroll make an entirely credible pair of innocents, whose growing feelings for each other gradually blossom into shy sexual rapture”
(THE GUARDIAN, JUNE 2017)
“McGovern, a high baritone Pelléas in plain shirt and trousers (he has sung Papageno and Purcell’s Aeneas, but also Monteverdi’s Orfeo) likewise sings with great polish”
(THE ARTS DESK, JUNE 2017)
“…his sinuous voice easily covers the role’s high range, and he looks suitably vulnerable and overwhelmed… Pelléas’s full-throttle declaration of love, just before he is killed by Golaud – tellingly anticipated in the orchestra – comes across as the focal point of the opera.”
(CLASSICAL SOURCE, JUNE 2017)
“Jonathan McGovern is simply made to sing Orpheus, deep in his role with an excellent vocal-theatrical integration that takes you without any loss of tension through the intricate passions of his character.”
(AUDIO CLASSICA, MAY 2017)
“Jonathan McGovern as Papageno displayed a beautiful timbre and resilient baritone”
(DER NEUE MERKER, OCTOBER 2016)
“A theatrical, linguistic and vocally powerful performance is offered by Jonathan McGovern as Papageno… Huge applause for the entire musical team, with many bravos especially for…Jonathan McGovern as well as Spinosi and the orchestra.”
(OPERNNETZ, SEPTEMBER 2016)
“Papageno (Jonathan McGovern: with mischief, tremendous enthusiasm and everything else you need as a crowd favourite)”
(NDR, SEPTEMBER 2016)
“Jonathan McGovern’s Alidoro was firm, expansive and aesthetically pleasing.”
(MUSIC OMH, DECEMBER 2015)
“Jonathan McGovern sang lustrously and stylishly as Alidoro.”
(THE TELEGRAPH, DECEMBER 2015)
“Above all, the singing was a treat. Jonathan McGovern gave us a splendid Alidoro, sensitively acted, and always sung with control which could create vulnerability as well as volume: attractive and appealing, Alidoro was the believable centre of the piece around whom all lust (high and low) revolved.”
(BACHTRACK, DECEMBER 2015)
“[Jonathan McGovern] was consistently tender and impressively even at the top of his range. Looking suitably youthful and ardent, he too connected with the text, pacing himself towards Pelleas’s searing, unambiguous declaration of love, when he let rip with total authority.”
(OPERA MAGAZINE, DECEMBER 2015)
“McGovern was a superbly haughty, then guilty Aeneas.”
(THE TIMES, OCTOBER 2015)
“Jonathan McGovern’s high-lying, mellifluous baritone is well suited to Pelléas”
(THE FINANCIAL TIMES, OCTOBER 2015)
“Jonathan McGovern’s clean-cut, brightly-sung Pelleas makes a nice foil to Susanna Hurrell’s fragile and fluttery Melisande, and together they make a poignantly star-cross’d pair.”
(INDEPENDENT, OCTOBER 2015)
“McGovern’s boyish appearance is matched by an immensely attractive, tenorial baritone that opens up at its top end with unexpected warmth.”
(ARTS DESK, OCTOBER 2015)